Happy Pexeto Day! Marketplace Author Sells $1,000,000 Worth of Items

Congratulations to team Pexeto who have reached Power Elite status by selling an incredible one million dollars worth of items. Since joining ThemeForest in August 2009 they have amassed over 30,000 sales and 1,524 followers. And all of that achieved while working whenever and wherever they like, focussing their attention on projects that interest them. Well done!

Happy Pexeto Day!

We asked the duo behind Pexeto a few questions about the journey to the $1,000,000 milestone. Read on to find out the secret behind their success, what makes Pexeto special, and how it feels to reach a million dollars worth of sales!

Congratulations on becoming a Power Elite author! Can you tell us a little bit about yourselves and how you got here?

Thank you, it’s a great honour for us to get to the Power Elite level. Pexeto consists of two developers—one of us is the main designer and front-end developer, and the other one is a front-end and back-end developer.

Before we started creating themes on ThemeForest, we were studying Computer Science at university and working as a developer and designer for another company. We have always had the dream of setting up our own business and creating our own products, which would allow us to work on what we want, and realize our own ideas.

Initially, one of us started creating graphic designs on GraphicRiver. This was a very good experience in stock marketplaces, so after a while we decided to join our forces and start creating templates on ThemeForest. We decided to test the market as it was just starting to peak.

We both had some experience with WordPress, so it made sense to take the next step. Although we had never worked on joint projects before, it was very easy for us to start working together—luckily we made a good team.

How does it feel to have sold over $1,000,000 of items?

It is truly unbelievable! Everything happened so fast. We can still remember the days when we were refreshing the browser every minute and getting so excited when we got a single sale. It is an amazing feeling to know that there are so many people all over the world that use our themes.

What does this milestone mean for you both as an author and designer?

It means a lot to us. It was a tough decision to quit our daily jobs and start working full-time as authors on ThemeForest. It’s an incredible feeling to see that the risk we took and all the hard work we invested, eventually paid off.

We see this milestone as a confirmation that we made the right choice and that we should continue following this path.

How many hours do you spend on designs that you sell on the Envato Marketplaces?

It really depends on what we are working on. Sometimes, especially a few weeks before we release a new theme, we work about 15-17 hours per day. The rest of the time we try not to work more than 8-10 hours per day.

Generally, creating a WordPress theme takes us a few months. With every new theme we try to improve our existing framework and implement new functionalities.

Have you had any designs rejected and what did you do about it?

Yes, some of our items were initially rejected, especially in the beginning when we were new to ThemeForest. Nowadays we spend a lot of time—during the development of the theme and after the theme has been finished—performing multiple tests before releasing a theme.

We think it is very important not to get disappointed when an item gets rejected, but to look at it as an opportunity to create a better product. We value the reviewer’s suggestions and view them as a helpful tool in improving our themes.

What words of encouragement do you have to any budding authors who want to make it to the Power Elite level?

If you are really keen to become a Power Elite author, you need to look at it as a long-term job. You need to be persistent and willing to work hard. Take care of your customers. It’s very important to provide good customer support service and always listen to the customers’ feedback.

Also, when creating a theme (or another product), try to implement something that will differentiate it from the others. It may be the design style, or new functionality. With so many themes out there, it’s hard to create something unique. Invest a significant effort in doing so.

What is your office space like?

We don’t have a standard office. Most of the time we work from home—we just have regular work desks in the living room. We also travel a lot, and work from different locations.

We like to think that our office is where our laptops are.

How do you get inspiration for your designs?

The inspiration usually comes from different sources, which are very often not web-related. Besides the usual web galleries, we also love package designs and print designs. Sometimes it is the functionality that comes first, and then we try to create a design that will suit it well.

We usually have at least two projects that we work on at the same time, and very often while working on one project we get ideas for the other one. We also get some of the ideas (mostly functionality-related) from our customers’ feedback.

What is the best thing about your job?

We love this job because it gives us the freedom to work on what we are passionate about, and realize our own ideas. Sometimes we spend months developing a new theme or creating functionality, and it is the most rewarding feeling to see our customers appreciating our products.

Another component of our job that we really enjoy is the flexible working hours and ability to work from home. It’s great to be able to work on what you like, whenever you like, and wherever you like!

If you could choose any space in the world and create a design for it, where would it be and what would you make?

There are many interesting ideas that we can think of, but if we have to choose one, that would be to design the floral carpet of the Grand Place Square in Brussels.

How do you keep motivated and inspired?

We don’t really need anything specific to motivate us—we love our job very much, and that’s the main thing that keeps us going.

And of course, Envato does a great job with the Elite program, which adds to our passion to get to the next level.

What is the hardest thing about your job?

The hardest part of the job is product support—both customer support and after-release maintenance of the product. We provide customer support to our theme users, and try to help them with any inquiries they have, which takes a significant amount of time. Fortunately we have two great support members that help us with all of this work, and we can dedicate more time to updating our themes or creating new ones.

In addition, maintaining the themes after release can sometimes be difficult. We always have to ensure that our themes are compatible with the latest WordPress release, third-party code, and all major browsers and devices, which often requires a large portion of our time, and lots of additional work.

Is there anything else you would like to add or say?

We would like to thank Envato for giving us the opportunity to be a part of this community and for everything the Envato team does for us, the authors. Our lives have changed significantly since we became authors on ThemeForest, and we are very appreciative of all the efforts everyone puts in to improve and develop this Marketplace.

Also, we would like to thank all of our customers for choosing our themes, and for their support.

Excellent congrats! One thing I am wondering. Is your secret of success your 25 hours day. And to be honest I am little bit jealous that you have one hour more than the rest of the world. When working 15-17 hours a day and 8-10 hours spare time this is a freaking crazy 25h day hahaha…! Go on and take care cause having one hour more per day might shorten your life…

http://www.webdesignalley.org/ WebDesign

Congratulations Guys.

http://www.nrwebseo.com Noman Gulzar

Great! congratulations!

http://www.Faith-Michele.com Faith

Congrats! The first three themes I bought were Pexeto themes — they were lovely and made it easy to get started even though I was a total WordPress newbie at the time!

http://www.studentcenter.in Chirag Jain

Congrats to both of you. You guys are a great source of motivation/inspiration for a fresh author like me. Keep rocking guys.

http://www.magiccash.ru/ WmMariupol

Congrats to both of you. You guys are a great source of motivation/inspiration for a fresh author like me. Keep rocking guys.

Katie

Hard work pays off! Great news Congrats!

http://www.barrettsdesign.com Rich

Unarguably astounding. Well done to both of you. Keep up the good work.

GhostArt

Congratulations!! We are waiting for your second million! BRAVO!

http://spokat.com Sepatu

Very inspiring and Congratulation to pexeto.

http://responsivewpthemes.org Responsive WP Themes

Congratulations

http://themeforest.net/user/pexeto Pexeto

We just wanted to say thank you all for your comments and your so kind words! You guys are so supportive, we really appreciate it Wishing all the best to everyone!

http://wordpressexamples.com Jacobus

Congratulations! What a success! And interesting to see that you also get a lot of inspiration through other sources.

http://www.backgroundcheckonlinefree.com Camila Aiden

Really motivating.Congrats to the author and Thanks to the Envato team